Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets

The Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets (女房三十六歌仙 ''Nyōbō Sanjūrokkasen''), is a canon of Japanese poets who were anthologized in the middle Kamakura Period. The compiler and exact date of the canon's construction is unknown, but it's reference is subsequently noted in the Gunsho Ruijū, volume 13.

Five of the 36, Ono no Komachi, Lady Ise, Nakatsukasa, Saigū no Nyōgo and Kodai no Kimi also appeared in an earlier anthology with the similar title ''Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry'' which dates from 1113 (late Heian Period). The poet Fujiwara no Kintō chose this original selection that preceded the ''Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets''.

These five women poets from the original publication were included in the ''Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets'' and canonized along with others from the Heian and Kamakura eras.

Role of women's court poetry in Heian-era Japan

The women canonized in this compilation are typically noblewomen associated with the imperial court, for example, Lady Ise, consort to Emperor Uda, Inpumon'in no Tayū (literally the Attendant to Empress Inpu), Michitsuna no haha (literally, Michitsuna's mother), Fujiwara no Shunzei no Musume (Literally Shunzei Fujiwara's daughter).

Scholars Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen and Yumiko Watanabe have suggested that the lack of a proper name or singular identity, symbolising broader structural power relations that marginalised court women, may have contributed to their autobiographic impulse to craft poetry.

Pre-modern Japanese Literature professor Roselee Bundy traces the contribution to women's court poetry reaching it's zenith in the mid Heian period as aesthetic communal events, before gradual professionalization of the genre began to exclude women’s voices beginning in the Kamakura period.

List of poets

* 【1】：Selected in the Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry by Fujiwara no Kintō (1113).
* 【2】：Selected in the Late Classical Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry by ja:Fujiwara no Norikane in the late Heian period.
* 【3】：Selected in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu by Fujiwara no Teika in the early Kamakura period.
* 【4】：Selected in the New Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry by Fujiwara no Mototoshi and unknown compilers

Woodblock prints of the Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets by

Chōbunsai Eishi

In 1801 the ukiyo-e painter Chōbunsai Eishi made a series of paintings to depict the thirty-six immortal women poets to accompany the calligraphy of each poet's verse, as produced by 36 girls who were students of Hanagata Giryu's (花形義融) calligraphy school "Hanagata Shodo". The album, reproduced with woodblock printing was intended to publicize the school. The 36 portraits are divided into a "left" (左) team and a "right" (右) team where the left team comprised poets who lived between the ninth and eleventh centuries, and the right team was made up of those poets that lived in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

The teams square off in a pair-competition on each spread, which was a practice dating from the Heian period imperial court in the late ninth century. The Smithosonian researcher Andrew J. Pekarik compared this competitive social art form to poetry slams at the Nuyorican Poets Café in the 1990s.

The album was published by Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eijūdō) ( 西村屋与八^(ja)) with an album binding (gajōsō) and also featured a woodblock printed cover designed by Hokusai.{{Cite web, title=Chōbunsai Eishi {{! Courtiers and Urchins, frontispiece for the album Brocade Prints of the Thirty-six Poetesses {{! Japan {{! Edo period (1615–1868), url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/57540, access-date=2022-02-19, website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art, language=en The block carvers were Yamaguchi Matsugorō (山口松五郎) Yamaguchi Seizō (山口清蔵).

File:Ono no Komachi 小野小町 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 1. Ono no Komachi 小野小町
File:伊勢 Lady Ise Heian Era Waka Poet 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 2. Lady Ise 伊勢
File:中務 Nakatsukasa, waka poet from the mid-Heian period 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, Nakatsukasa 中務
File:斎宮女御 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 4. Saigū no Nyōgo (Kishi Joō) 斎宮女御
File:Ukon 右近 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 5. Ukon 右近
File:Michitsuna's mother 右大将道綱母 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 6. Fujiwara no Michitsuna no Haha 右大将道綱母
File:Uma no Naishi 馬内侍 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 7. Uma no Naishi 馬内侍
File:Akazome Emon 赤染衛門 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 8. Akazome Emon 赤染衛門
File:Izumi Shikibu 和泉式部 mid Heian poet one of the thirty six medieval poetry immortals 中古三十六歌仙.jpg, 9. Izumi Shikibu 和泉式部
File:Kodai no Kimi 三条院女蔵人左近 小大君 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 10. Kodai no Kimi 三条院女蔵人左近 小大君
File:Murasaki Shikibu Japanese waka poet of the mid-Heian period 女房三十六歌仙 thirty-six female immortals of poetry.jpg, 11. Murasaki Shikibu 紫式部
File:小式部内侍 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 12. Koshikibu no Naishi 小式部内侍
File:伊勢大輔 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 13. Ise no Taifu 伊勢大輔
File:清少納言 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 14. Sei Shōnagon 清少納言
File:Daini no Sanmi 大弐三位（藤原賢子）女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 15.Daini no Sanmi 大弐三位
File:Takashina no Takako 高内侍（儀同三司母）女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 16. Takashina no Takako 高内侍
File:Yūshi Naishinnō-ke no Kii 一宮紀伊 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 17. Yūshi Naishinnō-ke no Kii 一宮紀伊
File:Sagami 相模 Japanese waka poet of the mid-Heian period 女房三十六歌仙 thirty-six female immortals of poetry.jpg, 18. Sagami 相模
File:Princess Shikishi (Shikishi Naishinnō) 式子内親王 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 19. Princess Shikishi (Shikishi Naishinnō) 式子内親王
File:Kunai-kyō 宮内卿 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 20. Kunai-kyō 宮内卿
File:Suō no Naishi 周防内侍（平仲子） 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 21 Suō no Naishi 周防内侍（平仲子
File:待賢門院堀河 Taikenmon'in no Horikawa 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 23. Taikenmon'in no Horikawa 待賢門院堀河
File:Gishūmon'in no Tango 宜秋門院丹後 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 24. Gishūmon'in no Tango 宜秋門院丹後
File:Kayōmon'in no Echizen 嘉陽門院越前 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 25. Kayōmon'in no Echizen 嘉陽門院越前
File:Nijōin no Sanuki 二条院讃岐 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 26. Nijōin no Sanuki 二条院讃岐
File:Kojijū 小侍従 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 27. Kojijū 小侍従
File:Go-Toba-in no Shimotsuke 後鳥羽院下野 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 28. Go-Toba-in no Shimotsuke 後鳥羽院下野
File:弁内侍 Ben no Naishi 13th-century Japanese court lady, poet and memoirist 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 29. Ben no Naishi 弁内侍
File:少将内侍 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 30. Gofukakusa-in no shōshō no naishi 少将内侍
File:殷富門院大輔 Inpumon'in no Tayū 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 31. Inpumon'in no Tayū 殷富門院大輔
File:土御門院小宰相 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 32. Tsuchimikado In no Kosaishō 土御門院小宰相
File:Hachijō-in Takakura 八条院高倉 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 33. Hachijō-in Takakura 八条院高倉
File:Fujiwara no Chikako 後嵯峨院中納言典侍（典侍藤原親子）女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 34. Fujiwara no Chikako 後嵯峨院中納言典侍（典侍藤原親子）
File:Shikikenmon'in no Mikushige 式乾門院御匣 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 35. Shikikenmon'in no Mikushige 式乾門院御匣
File:Sōhekimon'in no Shōshō 藻璧門院少将 女房三十六歌仙 Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets.jpg, 36. Sōhekimon'in no Shōshō 藻璧門院少将

References

Poetry anthologies
Waka poets
Japanese women poets
9th-century Japanese women writers
9th-century Japanese poets
10th-century Japanese poets
11th-century Japanese poets
Japanese poets of the Heian period
12th-century Japanese poets
11th-century Japanese women writers
11th-century Japanese writers
12th-century Japanese women writers
12th-century Japanese writers
10th-century Japanese women writers